1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to thoracoscopic methods for performing cardiac procedures. More particularly, the present invention relates to thoracoscopic methods for performing procedures externally on or internally within the heart while the patient's chest is unopened, the patient's heart is stopped, and the patient is supported by cardiopulmonary bypass.
Coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Western societies. Coronary artery disease is manifested in a number of ways. For example, disease of the coronary arteries can lead to insufficient blood flow resulting in the discomfort and risks of angina and ischemia. In severe cases, acute blockage of coronary blood flow can result in myocardial infarction, leading to immediate death or damage to the myocardial tissue.
A number of approaches have been developed for treating coronary artery disease. In less severe cases, it is often sufficient to treat the symptoms with pharmaceuticals and lifestyle modification to lessen the underlying causes of disease. In more severe cases, the coronary blockage(s) can often be treated endovascularly using techniques such as balloon angioplasty, atherectomy, laser ablation, stents, hot tip probes, and the like.
In cases where pharmaceutical treatment and/or endovascular approaches have failed or are likely to fail, it is often necessary to perform a coronary artery bypass graft procedure using open surgical techniques. Such techniques require that the patient's sternum be opened and the chest be spread apart to provide access to the heart. A source of arterial blood is then connected to a coronary artery downstream from an occlusion while the patient is maintained under cardioplegia and is supported by cardiopulmonary bypass. The source of blood is often the left or right internal mammary artery, and the target coronary artery can be the left anterior descending artery or any other coronary artery which might be narrowed or occluded.
While very effective in many cases, the use of open surgery to perform coronary artery bypass grafting is highly traumatic to the patient. The procedure requires immediate postoperative care in an intensive care unit, a total period of hospitalization of seven to ten days, and a recovery period that can be as long as six to eight weeks.
It would therefore be desirable to provide other, less traumatic methods and techniques for performing coronary artery bypass grafting. It would be particularly desirable if such techniques did not require opening of the patient's sternum, and might be even more desirable if such techniques could be performed using thoracoscopic methods. Such thoracoscopic methods could decrease morbidity and mortality, cost, and recovery time when compared to conventional open surgical coronary bypass procedures. In addition, such methods could be even more efficacious than open-surgical bypass procedures.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional thoracoscopic techniques are described in Landreneau etal. (1992) Ann. Thorac. Surg. 54: 800-807. Conventional open surgical procedures for performing coronary artery bypass grafting are described in Kirklin and Barratt Boyes, Cardiac Surgery, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, 1993 (2nd Ed.). Copending application Ser. No. 07/730,599, assigned to the assignee of the present application, describes a catheter which is insertable into a patient's arterial system and includes a distal balloon which can be expanded to occlude the ascending aorta. The coronary ostia remain unblocked so that the heart and proximal ascending aorta may be isolated while the patient is on cardiopulmonary bypass. This catheter is particularly intended to be used in heart valve replacement procedures.